Epic Fantasy – Page 3 – Marked for Plot

The City that Would Eat the World

2025 has not been my best year of reading (yet). There’s been quite a few disappointments, a decent number of ‘good, but not great’ books, and one or two that will stay with me. I’m happy to say that I finally found something addictive in The City that Would Eat the World. It was a raucously fun adventure in an alien world that is both utterly unlike our own, while mirroring it deeply.

Read if Looking For: easy reading, weird megastructures, batshit crazy plans, anticapitalist themes

Avoid if Looking For: themes you have to dig for, gritty and dark books, romantic subplots

The Whitefire Crossing

In my eternal quest for queer men represented in non-Romantasy books, I’ve started to look back at books that I likely missed in my childhood. Published in 2011, this book would have come out right as I was transitioning to reading books for adults more regularly, still desperately closeted in a small town, and craving representation in any variety.

I didn’t quite find that in The Whitefire Crossing. Both male leads are entangled with women, though sequels very well reveal bisexual identities or add new lead characters. It’s tagged as LGBTQ+ in Goodreads though, which is a good indication that there’s something there. Time will tell I suppose. It didn’t blow me away, but had a lot of interesting things going for it.

Read if Looking For: extended travel sequences, detailed climbing descriptions, all-powerful mages

Avoid if Looking For: dynamic fight scenes, books high quality female representation

The Truth of the Aleke

The Lies of the Ajungo captured my attention with how deftly Moses Ose Utomi mixed fable elements into a simple, but tightly written novella with an entrancing setting and eye for exploring power as a motif. The Truth of the Aleke continues that journey, jumping forward several hundred years, abandoning the folktale-esque vibes for something more traditionally ‘epic’ while still maintaining the thematic core of the series.

Read if Looking For: interesting takes on traditional story beats, fallible characters

Avoid if Looking For: deep worldbuilding or complex magic systems

Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Progression Fantasy is a subgenre that happily draws on video games, anime, and tabletop RPGs as inspiration points. Sufficiently Advanced Magic happily wears its influences on its sleeves. It’s a big magic school story with lots of cool fights, badass moments, without a whole lot mental load required of the reader. And while I think I ultimately prefer Journals of Evander Tailor for my ‘queer kid enchants items in a big magic school’ read, this is a phenomenal option, and definitely the more widely popular one.

Read If Looking For: anime vibes, overly analytical characters, dungeon crawling

Avoid if Looking For: books without filler, mystic magic, healthy parent/child relationships

The Enchanter

I was a Harry Potter kid growing up, and despite falling out of love with the series for a wide variety of reasons, magic schools will always hold a special place in my heart. I also loved Shoenn Manga, and remember buying the newest Naruto books released to see what was happening during the Chūnin Exams. This has since transformed into an adult love of the Progression Fantasy genre, featuring readable prose, fun battles, and lots of power ups. There’ve been a couple good marriages between these two elements, and even a few with lots of queer rep (Arcane Ascension and Mage Errant both get a big shout out for this!), but Journals of Evander Tailor is by far my favorite. The Enchanter is the first book in the journey, and I’ll keep singing its praises as long as I can.

Read If Looking For: breezy reading, detailed magic systems, supportive relationships, consequences for actions, a thoughtful and pragmatic lead character

Avoid if Looking For: beautiful prose, queer-friendly worlds, magic that remains mystic and unexplained

The Bloodsworn Saga

Normally I review books one at a time. The Bloodsworn Saga made a lot of sense to review as a full trilogy however. Some series develop and shift as they go on, each book taking on something new. They might expand the setting, embrace different themes, or focus on different characters. Bloodsworn Saga, however, is remarkably consistent. Book 1 would receive more or less the same praise and criticism as book 3, with my enjoyment depending on my joy and patience for both aspects. Also, it was tough to resist the call of displaying three of my favorite fantasy covers together. Bekki Guyatt (designer) and Marcus Whinney (illustrator) outdid themselves on these. If you’re looking for epic fantasy with lots of combat, lots of monsters, and big scary gods, this is your series.

Read If Looking For: Nordic settings, lots of fight scenes, epic scope, close attention to gear and tactics

Avoid if Looking For: books without plot armor, attention to theme and character development

Wolf of Withervale

I was drawn to Wolf of Withervale because I’ve been looking for good Epic Fantasy with Gay leads for a while. I’ve found bundles of romantasy, some more experimental stuff, but precious little in the classic older style … but gay. And Wolf of Withervale was exactly that. Massive world about to be thrust into turmoil, magical relics of ancient civilizations, young kid finding himself in the limelight through merest chance. It’s got a lot of what epic fantasy looks for, and it filled the itch I’d been looking for.

Read If Looking For: grand stakes, imposing villains, ancient magical artifacts, queer cultural references

Avoid if Looking For: books that start in the middle of the action, deep nuanced characterization

The Storm Beneath the World

As and English teacher, I constantly tell my kids not to judge a book by its cover. Dumb advice, but I have to try to get them to give Tamora Pierce a try somehow. It’s also undoubtedly true that a good cover is far more likely to get me to actually look at a book and give it a shot, and great cover artists are hard to find (especially since they and the authors rarely get a lot of say in what the cover looks like). And I’m ashamed to say that, with two horrible covers, I didn’t give The Storm Beneath the World a shot the first few times I saw it. Eventually, the premise of excellent fantasy featuring insect-people got me to pick it up, and thank goodness people kept hyping it. I’m now happy to say that it has a third, much better cover (for my tastes at least), and I think epic fantasy fans will find a lot to love here.

Read If Looking For: classic epic fantasy style writing in a totally alien setting, insect characters, ethical quandaries

Avoid if Looking For: books that avoid brutal violence, books with familiar settings

The Bone Harp

Victoria Goddard has been vaguely on my radar since I read The Hands of the Emperor, which I highly enjoyed but found entirely too long and repetitive. I’ve heard good things about her other books, and The Bone Harp’s premise piqued my interest. I have a soft spot for storyteller characters. And in the end I’m incredibly glad I read it. The book is very much a love letter to fantasy, with a twist on classic stories.

Read If Looking For: the trauma of violence, heroes after the dark lord is dead, poetic language, introspective reads

Avoid if Looking For: a plot where things happen

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn

Mark Lawrence is an author that gets name dropped a lot in places where I get recommendations. Yet I never seem to find time to pick him up. His newest series features libraries. I love libraries! So I picked up an audiobook copy and gave it a listen.

Read If Looking For: books about books, breaking time and space

Avoid if Looking For: something innovative in the genre